


Phoenix

by Alineko



Series: The young and (a little bit) broken [3]
Category: Earth 3490 (Marvel), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel 3490, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 17 years old Tasha Stark, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, BAMF Tony Stark, Badass Tony Stark, Canon Divergence - Iron Man 1, Female Tony Stark, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt Tony Stark, Iron Man 1, Iron Man creation, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Kidnapped Tony Stark, Mark I, Pre-Avengers (2012), Tasha Stark needs a hug, Tony Stark Deserves Better, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark and Ho Yinsen Friendship, Tony Stark younger AU, Tony Stark-centric, Torture, Underage - Freeform, Young Tony Stark, a bit of OOC, but with female tony, earth 3490 in MCU, mature tony stark, mentions of torture, minor underage, yinsen deserves better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 11:47:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16575866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alineko/pseuds/Alineko
Summary: At the shortage of seventeen, the spoiled genius, Natasha Antonia Stark, was already known in the world with the unofficial title of 'The Merchant of Death'... then, she was kidnapped.Alternatively: my version of Iron Man 1 with a young, female Tony Stark





	Phoenix

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of a prequel of my "Not a kid" story. (Where Natasha Stark is 20 when she joins the Avengers)  
> I was writing "Totally an adult" but I ended up watching Iron Man again and uh... this happened  
> Song I listened while writing this: Chandelier by SIA  
> Well... enjoy!

Natasha Antonia Stark has the life of a millionaire and spoiled playgirl. She doesn’t care about the awards or honors people think they are giving to her, because she knows very well that all of them are actually to honor her father. Howard Stark, the inventor, the CEO, the genius, “the good man”. The drunk, abusive asshole nobody knew he was, so given that, she doesn’t care, despite what Rhodey or Pepper could tell her, despite her best friend's scowling, it isn’t an honor to her, it is a reminder of the shadow she lives in.

“Ms. Stark!” A female voice interrupts her musings as she is exiting the casino, the teenager turns and see a hot reporter holding a recorder, security keeps her at bay, Tasha holds down her glasses and ogles her “Christine Everhart, Vanity Faur Magazine, Can I ask you a few questions?”

“Only if I can ask some back” she winks at the reporter and makes a motion for her bodyguards to step back

“You’ve been described as a Da Vinci for our times, what do you say to that?”

“That's ridiculous sweetheart, I don’t paint” she chuckles

“And what do you say to your other nickname: The merchant of death?” Tasha’s change in her expression is minimal, her face just tenses up for a second. She hates that name, knowing how many people have died because of her guns, sure the alcohol and the fun nights help a little to ease the guilt, but it doesn’t make it disappear though

“Hmmm it’s nice, a nice name, quite badass I mean” her gaze turns cold and calculating “Miss... Berkley?”

“Brown”

“Well miss Brown, it’s an imperfect world and I assure you, the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I’ll start manufacturing bricks and beams to make baby hospitals” she answers without missing a beat, her entire image is based on confidence, even if it's fake

“Rehearse that much, Ms. Stark?”

“Every night in front of the mirror in fact, but please, a beautiful lady like yourself can call me Tasha” she winks again, too used to flirt with people to have her way at this point

“Oh I’m sorry ‘Tasha’ I was hoping for a serious answer” the reporter is relentless 

“How about this for a serious answer? My old man had a philosophy: peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy” she replies mostly in automatic, repeating what Howard had said a lot of times to the board and following Obie’s order of emphasizing her father's figure

“Good line, coming from the gal selling the sticks” ' _nice attack_ ' the teenager thinks

“Well, what can I say? That was all my father, I’m simply trying to keep his work by following his steps” she almost... almost buys it 

“His war-profiteering steps?” Tasha smirks, it’s not everyday you can find someone who sees right through Starks bullshit

“I have my own steps honey, don’t you know about the millions we’ve saved by advancing medical technology? Or kept from starving with our inteli-crops? All of them were breakthroughs spawned from... that’s right! Military funding!” which is no lie, most of Stark Industries funds come from the army

“Wow, you ever lose an hour of sleep your whole life?” 

“Now wouldn’t you love to know that” she leers, because bedding the reporter that’s trying to destroy you can be a good or bad idea depending on how you look at it.... and how good your skills are, and Tasha’s, despite her young age, were good, she wasn't a famous playgirl for nothing.

~ 

The trip to Afganistan wasn’t so bad if she didn’t take into account Rhodey bitching her ear off. Still, the beautiful flight attendance and the alcohol was fun, the weapons demonstration afterward? Not so much.

She's on a brand new suit, her hair up in a ponytail, heels that could kill anyone that isn’t her or Pepper and sunglasses, 'cause the heat and sun seems more deadly than the machines she creates 

“The age-old question: is it better to be feared or respected? I say... why not both? With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark Industries Freedom Line, it’s the first missile system to incorporate my proprietary Repulsor Technology. They say the best weapon is the one you never have to fire... I prefer the one you only have to fire once” she makes a motion and the missile is launch, then it divides from a single rocket into scores of mini-missiles, Tasha raises her arms as a row of majestic peaks of dust show behind her “Gentlemen, for your consideration... the Jericho” After confirming the success of the sell with Obie, who's still sleeping, the bastard,  she has to return to the airport and to Miami “Sorry Rhodey, but this is the funvee, and so, there’s no room for my conscience in here” she raises her glass to him “See you back at the base platypus” at that time she didn’t know how glad she was going to be of making that call

~ 

She opens her eyes, there are lights that hurt her head, but there’s another pain that takes that one away, she doesn’t know where is it from, but her entire chest feels like if she's on fire, Tasha tries to fight against the thing that’s restraining her, she looks around in despair, she can see bloody hands near her, her upper-body is naked and she is bleeding, is surreal because she can’t pinpoint the pain but it grows, it becomes harder to ignore, she howls because it hurts and she is bleeding and she needs help, the pain drowns her thoughts, to the point to consume everything else. A man says something in Arabic and then someone is pressing a dirty rag to her face, seconds later, the darkness comes

~ 

She wakes up again, disoriented, she touches her face and feels a tube protruding from her nose, she turns to the side and sees a jug of water on the table and damn if she is thirsty, her throat hurts, as if she had screamed for hours, she can’t speak, and it’s infuriating, first things first, she takes out the nasal tube, gagging as she does it. She can hear someone humming, but she doesn’t focus on that, she has to ease the pain and dryness in her throat, it’s all she can think of, Tasha yanks the IV from her arm and stretches to the water, only to be stopped by a wire... in her chest... poking out of her chest bandages... What. The. Fuck.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you” an older voice sounds snapping her from her shock, she looks up to an old man and then down to the wire, her eyes follow it and finds, with growing horror that it’s hooked up to a car battery

“What.... what...” she tries to say as she claws her bandages, the man turns as she sees her ugly chest wound, her mind fighting to comprehend how this happened to her in so such a short amount of time, it’s too much and she vanishes again.

~ 

The man stirs a bubbling pot on the furnace, he flicks glances at Tasha who is waking up on the cot, she eyes her new bulky chest-piece and her fresh bandages

“What have you done to me” she tiredly whispers

“What did I do? I saved your life, that's what I did" Tasha looks at him warily "I removed what I could, but there’s a lot left headed for your atrial septum. Here, you wanna see? I have a souvenir. Take a look” the man tosses her a jar with scores of bloody barbs, she recognizes the shrapnel, she owns the patent after all. Putting the jar aside she remembers, the attack to the Humvee, the dead soldiers, the explosions, finally, the grenade with her, literally, name on it ‘Stark Industries’. She closes her eyes for a moment and open them again “I’ve seen many wounds like this in my village, 'the walking dead' is how we call them, because it takes a week for the barbs to reach vital organs"

“What is this?” Tasha asks breathless, a cold look in her eyes

“That is an electromagnet, hooked up to a car battery, and it’s keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart” he gives his hand to shake, Tasha, feeling completely numb, shakes it “Ho Yinsen” her eyes drift to a surveillance camera, the man, Yinsen, follows her gaze “That’s right, smile” he turns to her again “We met before you know? at the technical conference in Bern last year”

“I don’t remember” Tasha mutters as she struggles to sit up

“I’m not surprised you don’t. If I’d been that drunk, I wouldn’t have been able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits” he chuckles slightly 

“Yep, that sounds like me” she groans in pain “Where are we anyway-?” the door-slat flies open and a pair of men stare at them, Yinsen puts his hands on his head

“Stand up! Just do as I do, common put your hands up” she does as told, some armed men enter first with a robust man behind them

“Those are my guns, how did they get my guns?”  the teenager asks in disbelief

“Do you understand me? Do as I do” the man that looks like the boss speaks in Arabic, Yinsen kindly translates “He says welcome Natasha Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America, it’s a great honor” the girl glares at the leader, as if she could vanish him with just her eyes “He wants you to build for him the missile, the Jericho missile that you demonstrated” the man gives Yinsen a photo that he shows to the genius “This one” Tasha looks at the photograph of her new invention, then at the man in front of her, she doesn’t take more than a second before smirking

“I refuse”

The next thing she knows is that she is being submerged in cold, dirty water as a strong hand keeps her there, she fights with all her might, but it’s futile, she is a small person after all, not at all with the kind of leverage she needs to even try to take advantage of the position she’s in, just when she can’t contain her breath any longer the hand takes her out and she gasps. She takes the quickest, shallowest, not even enough breaths she can, spitting water desperately, but a second later she’s been submerged again, and again, in between, she can feel the water making a shortcut with the battery. Her hair is pulled and it hurts, it hurts to breath.

They ask her again

"I.... won't.... build the Jericho" she wheezes

The torture continues. This time they leave her hanging by her feet for a good three hours, at the last hour though, they start cutting her toenails, very slowly, all of them... one by one. her screams can be heard from the entrance of the cave. When she refuses again, the water comes back, this time, they go as far as to let her drown once, performing RCP on her immediately afterward, but now they don't wait for her answer as they start beating her, always aiming at her stomach, because they need her arms and hands in good condition and they can't risk killing her by destroying her chest magnet. three days pass like that. Water, beatings, eat, sleep, water, beatings, puke, try to eat, more beatings, sleep. By the fourth day she breaks and she agrees to create the stupid missile.   

~ 

They take her out of the cave, the sudden change of light is so hard it’s enough to make her head hurt, she’s hugged to her car battery, it’s almost ridiculous how even more small she looks with that thing, she has always been quite petite for her age, but now it’s worst. She walks around the camp, all that she can see is boxes of guns.... guns that have ‘Stark Industries’ on them, inwardly she shivers. The boss stands before her, ogling her, Tasha has never felt more self-conscious than now, she hugs the car battery even tighter, he talks and Yinsen translates

“He wants to know what you think”

“I think you got a lot of my weapons” she whispers not daring to cut the eye on eye contact, that’s a game her dignity is not going to allow her to lose

“He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile, he wants you to make the list of materials, he says for you to start working immediately and when you’re done, he will set you free” Tasha shivers again, the lascivious glint the man possess along with his lustful smirk and the way he totally checks her out says otherwise. She doesn’t want to know what they are planning to do with her after she’s done and she’s definitely not keen on knowing what kind of torture they would have engaged if she kept refusing. Right now, the only way she is going to get out of here, is with her brain, so she smiles with fake relief and shakes the bosses hand, while muttering to Yinsen and herself

“No, he won’t”

“No, he won’t” Yinsen agrees

~ 

“I’m sure they are looking for you Stark, but they will never find you in these mountains, look, what you just saw, that is your legacy Stark, your life’s work in the hands of those murderers, Is that how you want to go out? Is this-”

“It isn’t” Tasha interrupts Yinsen rant, she looks at the man with a tired look that shouldn’t be in a seventeen-year-old “This isn’t my work, This is Howard’s... I don’t even like weapons, but bad enough was that I was born a girl, I didn’t want to add insult to the injury by not taking the family business as well” she sees the fire crackling “I wanted to do more... to create helpful things, not death machines”

“Then prove it” Yinsen says while taking care of her injuries “Do something about it!”

“What’s the point? They’re going to kill me and you, either way. And even if they don’t, I’ll probably be dead in a week” she mutters almost giving up... almost

“Well then... this is a very important week for you isn’t it?” Tasha looks at him curiously, then she eyes the fire, maybe, just maybe... the fight isn’t over yet

~ 

“If this is going to be my work-station, I want it well-lit. I want these up” Tasha gives orders as Yinsen translates for her “I need welding gear, I don’t care if it’s acetylene or propane, I need a soldering station. I need helmets. I’m gonna need goggles. I would like a smelting cup. I need two sets of precision tools and I need pads or tampons” Yinsen looks at her weirdly as he translates, she puts an ‘ _I don’t give a shit about your misogyny crap_ ’ type of look at the other men, daring them to say anything about it, because she might be kidnapped and a bit helpless at the moment, but she's still Natasha Antonia Stark, the youngest, almost, CEO of the biggest weapons and military technology company, and kidnapped or not, in a fucking dessert or not, Natasha Stark didn’t take any bullshit from anyone. Not if she could fight them. And even if she couldn’t, she will, by God that she will fight them

~ 

“Who are these people?” Tasha asks Yinsen one night as she is disarming a small missile

“They are your loyal customers, Miss. They call themselves the Ten Rings” Tasha hums in acknowledgment and keeps working “You know? We might be more productive if you include me in the planning process...” she doesn’t say anything as she takes a part of the weapon out, she examines it, takes what she needs and then tosses it “What is that?”

“That’s palladium, 0.15 grams. I need at least 1.6 so you could help me to break down the other 11” Yinsen do as told, after that he looks the teenager work with an absolute concentration look in her face, helping her occasionally “Careful” she whispers “Careful, we have just one shot at this”

“Relax. I have steady hands, why do you think you’re still alive?” Yinsen helps her pour the melted palladium in a circle. Tasha works almost all night after that making her new invention, she knows that she succeed the moment she sees the glow “That doesn’t look like a Jericho missile” Yinsen says curiously a few hours later 

“That’s because it’s a miniaturized arc reactor” she explains in a quiet voice “We got a big one powering my factory at home, it should keep the shrapnel out of my heart”

“But what could it generate?”

“If my math is right, and it always is, three gigajoules per second” she whispers 

“That could run your heart for 50 lifetimes”

“Yeah.... or something big for 15 minutes” Tasha then shows him her prints she had made “This is our ticket out of here” she says while flatting the papers, allowing them both to see an iron armor

~ 

Tasha lost time track, she's playing a board game with Yinsen, after so many days she feels at ease with him, like she used to feel with her human Jarvis when she was a child

“Good, good roll, good roll” he smiles 

“You still haven’t told me where you’re from” Tasha accuses him

“I’m from a small town called Gulmira, it’s actually a nice place if you want to visit sometime”

“Got a family?” the girl eyes him with a bit of fondness

“Yes, and I will see them when I leave here, what about you Stark?”

“Please, call me Tasha” she makes another move “My family are my friends, out of them, I don’t” she says smiling sadly, remembering her mom

“No one? Really?”

“My mom passed away when I was 10, and I never considered Howard as my father for starters” she snorts "Hell, even my butler Jarvis was more of a Dad than him" she feels a weight in her heart that doesn't have to do with the reactor 

“Ah... a bad relationship?”

“You could say that” Yinsen looks at her curiously “Or you could say that he was an alcoholic and abusive asshole that put my life in danger more than once”

“I’m sorry to hear that”

“It’s alright, maybe it’s the price to pay for the money I have” and it's not the first time she thinks that

“To have everything.... and nothing at the same time... it doesn’t sounds like a fair price” she smirks

“No... it isn’t” she concedes 

~ 

Tasha and Yinsen continue to work in the metal armor, the Ten Rings keep thinking that she is actually working in Jericho missile and it’s better for her.

Until one day, the boss, the real boss enters their prison, both of them raises their arms and puts them on the head

“Relax” he says in perfect English, the boss walks to her and touches her arc reactor, passing a rough finger too close to her boobs, she contains a shudder and does her best to not flinch, they won’t have the pleasure of seeing her react “The bow and arrow once was the pinnacle of weapons technology” he goes back to the middle of the room and the girl slightly relaxes “It allowed the great Genghis Khan to rule from the Pacific to Ukraine, an empire twice the size of Alexander the Great and four times the size of the Roman Empire... But today...” he goes straight to some plains in the table “Whoever holds the latest Stark weapons, rules this lands” Yinsen make a movement that only she can see “And soon... it will be my turn” he walks to her again standing right in front of her. He starts talking in Arabic and turns to Yinsen, Tasha tenses again, she doesn’t want anything happening to her new friend.

A couple of soldiers subdue him and the man threatens to make him eat a carbon on fire

“What does he want?” she asks a little more frightened that she intends to, the man gets close to Yinsen face and Tasha moves without even thinking “What do you want? A delivery date?” all the soldiers move to her to stop her, they point their guns at her, she raises her hands lightly and when she makes sure that she has the leader’s attention she says in the calmest voice manageable “I need him, he is a good assistant” the boss drops the coil and looks her dead in the eye

“You have till tomorrow to assemble my missile" they leave after that.

~ 

That night she doesn’t sleep, she doesn’t rest, she has to get them out of there. When the helmet’s ready she prepares herself. Bandages in her hands and arms, a leather jacket in her shoulders and leather gloves, Yinsen helps her to put the arness to keep the armor in place, then the chest plate

“Okay? Can you move? okay, say it again” he urges her, time is gold, after all, it won't be long till the others notice that something's wrong

“41 steps straight ahead, then 16 steps that from the door, fork right, 33 steps, turn right” Yinsen is making the last arrangements when a guard yells at them

“Yinsen! Yinsen! Stark!”

“Common, say something to him” Tasha urges

“He’s speaking Hungarian, I don’t...”

“You don’t know Hungarian?”

“Okay, I know..."

“What do you know?” Yinsen says something but looks like the guard is not satisfied with it and opens the door... activating the bomb Tasha put on it “How’d that work?” the girl asks

“Oh, my goodness, it worked, all right” he says reluctantly impressed

“What can I say, that’s what I do" she looks smug for someone that was tortured and starved 

“Let me finish this” Yinsen goes back to adjust the suit

“Let me, you go initialize the power sequence"

“Okay” the scientist runs to the computer “Tell me, tell me”

“Function 11, tell me when you see a progress bar, it should be up right now, talk to me. Tell me when you see it"

“I have it”

“Press control ‘I’ ‘Enter’ ‘I’ and ‘Enter’" she guides him through her programming 

“Done”

“Okay, now, please come over here and button me up”

“They’re coming!” Yinsen warns her

“I know, Yinsen it’s okay, we can do this” she doesn’t admit it but she is terrified, she doesn’t want to die yet, not when she has so many things to do, but giving in to the panic would definitely not help “Make sure the checkpoints are clear before you follow me out, okay?”

“We need more time” Yinsen mutters, he turns to Tasha “Hey, I’m gonna go buy you some time” she pales

“What? No! Yinsen! Stick to the plan! Yinsen stick to the plan!” she can hear the man shooting outside the containment room “Yinsen!!” she looks at the computer, is halfway there...

it’s a few seconds more when it finally ends and everything goes dark, some soldiers enter and Tasha takes the opportunity to push one of them off, the others start shooting, she smashes the other two and the third she knocks him in the head. As she moves inside the cave she beats every man she encounters, every single one of them. A simple metal door is no obstacle for her new suit as she destroys it. She is near the exit when she sees her friend bleeding on top of cement bags

“Yinsen!”

“Watch out” he warns her and a second later a bomb flies right next to her and impacts on the rock, she sends a rocket of her own at the boss, pissed. She goes to her friend right away and takes the bags off him

“Stark...” she opens the faceplate

“Tasha, remember? Come on, we got to go, move for me, come on. We got a plan, we’re gonna stick to it, okay?” her eyes get red with unshed tears, she can hear a voice in her head saying 'it’s too late' but she blocks it, she doesn’t want to listen to it 

“This was always the plan Tasha ” she moves her head negatively 

“Come on, you’re gonna go see your family, get up... please, please Yinsen get up” she begs in despair. _No, not him, please not him_  

“My family is dead, I’m going to see them now, Tasha... it’s okay, I want this, I want this” he puts his hand on top of her armored hand

“It’s not fair, Yinsen, please don’t leave me” she cries quietly “I haven’t even given you a proper thanks for saving me yet”

“You can pay me... don’t... don’t waste it, don’t waste your life... you are young, you go find a family of your own” he smiles at her as he lets himself go, Tasha sobs, her dear friend lays dead in front of her, for the first time in years, she feels truly alone again. She turns to the bastards that did this, feeling an incredible amount of rage bubbling inside her. When she gets outside, the soldiers shoot her until their guns are empty

“My turn” she whispers before unleashing hell in the form of firethrowers. She burns everything, every box, every man, every ‘Stark Industries’ weapon in the base, and she enjoys it inmensly. She makes everything explode as she flies with the repulsors she made, unfortunately, she runs out of gas quickly and she falls to the sand, only surviving thanks to her metal armor, then... she walks.

She walks through the desert, she doesn’t know how much until she sees the helicopters, Tasha falls to her knees, the most magnificent vision in the middle of the desert, is so good it almost looks like a hallutination: Rhodey

“How was the ‘fun-vee’?” he asks, the jerk, Tasha can only smile and laugh in relief, both of knowing her best friend is alive and well and of knowing herself safe again “Next time, you ride with me princess, okay?” he hugs her, relieved of seeing her again.

~ 

When she walks down the plan with Rodhey helping her and only a cast on plain sight, the first thing she sees is Pepper and Happy, both waiting for her. Pepper smiles, barely containing the joy tears

“Your eyes are red” Tasha whispers “A few tears for your long-lost boss?”

“More like for my best friend” she says and Tasha gulps around the lump in her throat “And I hate job hunting so thank you for coming back” she smiles slightly

“Yeah... seems like vacation’s over” they enter the car

“So what are you doing now?” Pepper asks, fully knowing that the teenager won't put a foot in the hospital even if she begs her to

“First... I want a decent American cheeseburger, then... I want you to hold a press conference and I need you to call the board members, although I have a feeling they are going to come on their own, then I want to go see aunt Peggy” Tasha looks through the window, thinking what to say to the board

“Press conference? For what?” Pepper eyes her curiously 

“You’ll see sweetheart, you’ll see” it's there, with her family, the place she feels safe the most, there's a lot of things to do, and she doesn’t want to let Yinsen down. This is the start of her new life        

**Author's Note:**

> I'll continue "Totally an adult" very soon, I promise  
> In the meantime, I'd love to read your thoughts on this one


End file.
